


Merits of a Hippo

by Calacious



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Bonding, First Kiss, Fluff, Hippopotamus, M/M, Nanowrimo2017, Pre-Slash, Prompt Fic, Shark - Freeform, Silly
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-13
Updated: 2017-11-13
Packaged: 2019-02-01 18:07:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,052
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12710169
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Calacious/pseuds/Calacious
Summary: Hunk proposes that they play a little game to bond with each other. Keith doesn't understand how sharing what his favorite animal is will aid in bonding, but he plays along.





	Merits of a Hippo

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by the following stanza:  
> "The hippo's feeble steps may err
> 
> In compassing material ends,
> 
> While the True Church need never stir
> 
> To gather in its dividends."
> 
> \- T.S. Eliot "The Hippopotamus"
> 
> Set somewhere in season one. Please forgive errors, and ridiculousness. I don't own the characters of this work of fiction.

"Hippos are my favorite animal," Keith says, unashamed when it's his turn to play this 'game' that Hunk came up with -- name your favorite, or your least favorite, something. There was more to the game than that, but Keith couldn’t remember what it was, and it’s not like it matters much because he knows that the subject is going to change at some point in time and a new round of the ‘game’ will start.

Hunk had said it was a way for them to bond. Keith hopes that Lance remembers _this_ bonding moment.

Right now they’re supposed to share what their favorite animal is and why. Keith wonders how this could possibly help them bond. Bonding involves things like trust and saving someone’s life, not talking about favorite this and that, right?

Pidge's favorite animal isn't even an animal. It's something mystical. A dragon. Keith supposes that, in a way, it _is_ a cool not really real animal to have as a favorite. Dragons can breathe fire, right? They’re also known to guard castles, and princesses that have curses cast on them. The fact that, at least according to research that Pidge, and others, have done, dragons might actually be real, or have been real, at one point in time, is actually pretty neat and something that Keith wants to look into a little more when he has time.

Hunk's favorite animal is something completely mind boggling. Kittens, because they're cute and cuddly, and they purr. Purring is rather annoying, Keith thinks. They’re nothing but rumbling noise boxes that vibrate whenever they're touched. Keith would have thought that Hunk would have chosen something bigger, and a little more ferocious than a kitten as his favorite animal. Sure, they can climb and scratch and bite, but they’re easy to manhandle, and distract. All it takes is a piece of loose string and the kitten is off and running, or a laser point. A kitten would be completely useless in a gun or knife fight.

Shiro's favorite animal is even more of a surprise, and a bit of a disappointment. He likes llamas, because they're useful and they can run fast. Shiro also says they’ve got character. There are a lot of useful animals that can run fast, Keith can't help but think. Horses, for one. And horses are much more practical than llamas, because they can be ridden. You can’t really ride a llama, not unless you want to get spit at.

Keith has always liked hippos. They're fierce, deadly creatures that can wreak havoc on the unwary and uninitiated. They look like bumbling fools, too big and lumbering to do much harm, but in reality, they're swift deadly animals, and in their unassuming way, they can, and do, kill.

Thousands of people have been killed by hippos in Africa. Fishermen. Children. People who mock the majestic beast. People who attempt, and fail, to capture them.

Seen as menaces, hippos are hunted and killed, their carcasses left to rot. They have few enemies outside of man. Few predators willing to take them on, like Keith has few who are willing to take him on.

"Hippos?" Lance says, giving him a sidelong look that's both skeptical and indulgent. It's a look that Keith wants to wipe off the other paladin's face.

"What's yours, then?" Keith asks a little more aggressively than he probably should, elbowing Lance in the side.

Lance blushes and looks down at his hands, muttering something that no one can make out.

"What?" Keith asks.

"You need to speak up, Lance," Hunk says. "We can't hear you, buddy."

"Sharks," Lance says, still looking down at his hands, which are twined together in his lap. "I like sharks." His cheeks are a faint red in color. It’s kind of cute.

_Sharks...are almost as good as hippos,_ Keith thinks, approving of Lance’s choice in favorite animal. They're fierce and deadly. They're sleek and can cut through water like a sharp knife through just about anything. Keith admires sharks for their keen sense of smell, and their ability to navigate in cold, dark waters.

Keith claps Lance on the back, and Lance raises his head. The smile he gives Keith is almost blinding in intensity, and Keith can't help but reciprocate it. Maybe he and Lance aren't so different from each other after all, maybe this _is_ a bonding moment. Both of them admire animals that can kill, and would definitely be able to hold their own in a fight.

"Sharks are so cool," Lance says, voice excited, hands flying as he speaks. "Their fins are like, da dun, da dun, da dun..." he mimics a shark fin with a hand over his head, and goes on to relate some ludicrous tale about an encounter he once had with a shark when he was a kid.

Keith doesn’t believe a word of it, but he listens and watches the way that Lance’s face lights up, and the way that his hands and lips move as he speaks. It’s mesmerizing, and before he knows what he’s doing, he’s leaning in and capturing Lance’s lips with his own, effectively cutting Lance off mid-word.

By the time that Keith’s mind catches up with what his body is doing, his lips are warm and tingly, and he can taste something sweet, like honey, on his tongue. Lance is staring at him, dumbstruck, mouth slightly open, eyes half-lidded, cheeks a dusty pink in color.

“I think I love you,” Lance says on a sigh, blinking when his words catch up to him, and blushing a deeper shade of pink, long eyelashes fluttering.

“That sure was a good bonding session you set up, Hunk,” Pidge says, giggling when Keith turns to glare at the young paladin.

"Should we, you know, kiss or something, too?” Hunk asks, looking from Shiro to Pidge, and laughing when they both shake their heads.

“Kiss me, again?” Lance asks, tugging on Keith’s hand to steal his attention back from the others.

Sighing, Keith ignores the googly eyed looks the others are giving the two of them and presses his lips to Lance’s. They’re just as warm and sweet, as giving as they were before, and he loses himself in the kiss for a short while, enjoying this bonding moment above all the rest.


End file.
